IGI teams up with Career Excel to empower its female employees
IGI celebrates International Women’s Day with Career Excel, the premier online leadership training program for women
International General Insurance Holdings Limited (IGI) has announced plans to support the women in its organization on International Women’s Day by investing in their personal and professional development.
As part of its ongoing Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) initiative, IGI will offer Career Excel to every woman within its global organization, which spans five offices. Female employees will be able to access the online program from any location, complete it at their own pace and take away actionable strategies to advance their careers.
Backed by principles of psychology and neuroscience, Career Excel is an 18-week
e-learning curriculum that addresses the challenges women face in the workplace and helps develop critical soft skills to overcome them, including self-advocacy, networking, confidence, assertive communication and more. Participants learn through weekly “Insights-to-Action” Masterclasses, exercises and group coaching calls to discuss workplace challenges. Career Excel was designed by two successful career women—Jennifer Willey and Hira Ali - who combined over 35 years of business, HR and training experience with academic and proprietary research to build a program of unparalleled depth.
“IGI is at the forefront of supporting women to ensure they have the same opportunities as men. We are an equal opportunity employer with a 50:50 male to female ratio workforce, and we understand that investing in developing young women’s leadership skills will not only change the course of their future, but also that of their communities,” said Aaida Abu-Jaber, Head of Marketing and PR at IGI and the company’s D&I Champion.
“Diverse and inclusive businesses are more innovative, creative, profitable and fun, but female leaders continue to be under-represented in insurance. At IGI, we like to work with credible and competent entities to tackle the important issue of D&I and combine those efforts with real action. We are delighted to partner with Career Excel to build on our D&I efforts and to help the women at IGI realise their full potential as future leaders,” Ms Abu-Jaber added.
Career Excel Co-Creator and CEO of Advancing Your Potential, Hira Ali, said: “IGI has a longstanding commitment to D&I initiatives. Because we share those values, our partnership to empower the women of IGI is even more rewarding. Jenn and I also have diverse backgrounds - Jenn is an American living in New Jersey and I am a Pakistani residing in London. Our varied professional experiences and cultural influences have shaped Career Excel’s curriculum, making it relevant for women around the world.”
Career Excel Co-Creator and CEO of Wet Cement, Jennifer Willey, stated: “Career Excel’s accessible online format is an ideal solution for global companies like IGI that have employees spread out across multiple offices and countries. We are proud to help IGI support advancement for women at every age and career level.”
IGI created its D&I programme in 2018 and has backed many projects supporting female empowerment. IGI recently partnered with the Jordanian-founded social enterprise “The World of Letters,” which spearheaded a collective women’s movement called Women as Partners in Progress (WPP). Led by Arab women leaders, the programme highlights gender imbalance in the workplace in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
In 2018, IGI teamed up with Lloyd’s of London to host Jordan’s first Dive-In Festival – the insurance industry’s event to highlight and celebrate efforts on D&I initiatives. The event was themed around female empowerment. In 2019, IGI held a second Dive-In Festival, which targeted females at the grassroots level by hosting a panel discussion on harassment in the workplace. IGI also supports other industry-led D&I initiatives, such as The Insurance Insider Progress and the Insurance Supper Club.
IGI has also supported Equal Playing Field (EPF), an organization dedicated to highlighting female under-representation and inequality in sports by breaking Guinness World Records. Last year, IGI sent an all-female team from the insurance industry to take part in breaking the Guinness World Record for the biggest football game on earth – which lasted five days, with over 800 players from different countries, ages, groups, ethnicities, religions and backgrounds.
Authored by IGI
About IGI
Established in 2001, International General Insurance (IGI) is a global privately-owned specialist commercial insurer and reinsurer. Our vision is to be the company of choice for clients and brokers through market-leading service and our reputation for stable management and capital security.
A diverse and highly experienced team of underwriters operates our office in London. We also have offices in Dubai, Amman, Casablanca and Kuala Lumpur.
Our diverse portfolio of specialty lines includes Energy, Property, Construction & Engineering, Ports & Terminals, Financial Institutions, Aviation, Professional Indemnity, Political Violence, Legal Expenses, D&O, Casualty, Forestry and Treaty Reinsurance.
Standard and Poor’s upgraded our financial strength rating to “A- “, with a Stable outlook. A.M. Best rated the company A- (Excellent), with a Positive outlook, stating, “the revised outlook reflects IGI’s consistent record of very strong operating performance and the continuous improvement in its enterprise risk management framework.”
We take pride in providing proactive claims management, coupled with open communication, leading to the efficient handling of claims. We endeavour to act fairly and honourably in our relations with clients and brokers.